1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus, and an electrophotographic member used in the process cartridge and the electrophotographic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic apparatus includes a charging member for uniformly charging a surface of a photosensitive, a developing member for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive into a toner image by supplying a toner to the latent image, and a transferring member for transferring the toner image onto a recording material. In addition, the electrophotographic apparatus includes a fixing member for fixing the toner image onto the recording material, a cleaning member for removing the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive after transferring the image. Among these members, as a member that is required to secure sufficient contact nip with the photosensitive in particular, a rubber roller including a semiconductive resin layer formed on a shaft of a metal cored bar and, if necessary, a surface layer formed thereon is generally used.
In recent years, cost reduction has become more and more significant as a result of intensification of price competition of products, and therefore, electrophotographic members using a thin surface layer or employing a simple layer structure including merely a resin layer and no surface layer have been proposed. Since rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer has large friction and high tackiness, however, when such a simple layer structure is employed, a toner or an external additive can adhere onto the surface of the electrophotographic member, which sometimes causes an image failure.
For overcoming such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-160355 discloses a charging member in which surface roughness of a resin layer is controlled by forming a surface modified layer through irradiation with an energy line such as UV or electron rays.